Shame on shameless Pete Rose ... and shame on Comings again!
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The more Pete Rose talks, the deeper he digs his baseball grave.
But where the naked con man loses me again is when he attaches his plight to that of Jim Eisenreich, the former big-league outfielder who fought Tourette's syndrome with inspiring courage. Just when we'd seen it all with Rose, he tries tugging at our hearts by invoking Eisenreich to draw parallels to his betting mania. ''I discovered I had more in common with Eisenreich than just base hits,'' Rose writes. If it seems a hokey and rather insensitive stretch, a glance at the book's back flap confirms suspicions. Turns out the co-author, Rick Hill, is a Hollywood screenwriter who just happened to write the screenplay for ''The Longshot.''
Based on the life of Jim Eisenreich.
So what we have here is Rose, with the help of a shameless co-conspirator, trying to paint the picture of a clinically ill man who blames ADHD for his gambling and lying problems. Sounds like a hell of a scam when you need a convenient excuse: Hijack a plane, blame it on ADHD; embezzle millions, blame it on ADHD; miss a deadline, blame it on ADHD. They go so far as to quote an expert, Dr. David E. Comings, who says of Rose, ''Sometimes gamblers just forget the boundaries. It is very consistent with impulse disorders and ADHD for Pete to just not be able to distinguish between sports when it came time to place his bets. He just may not have been able to draw the line.''
But even Comings couldn't fully play along with Pete's latest game. ''On the other hand, he may have done it on purpose for the added thrill ... because he knew it was illegal,'' the doctor says. ''It's much like politicians and powerful dictators. If a person does an illegal act and gets away with it again and again, he discovers no one makes him accountable. He may have thought, 'I know about this rule, but no one will ever dare call me on it.'''
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QUOTES
The more Pete Rose talks, the deeper he digs his baseball grave.
But where the naked con man loses me again is when he attaches his plight to that of Jim Eisenreich, the former big-league outfielder who fought Tourette's syndrome with inspiring courage. Just when we'd seen it all with Rose, he tries tugging at our hearts by invoking Eisenreich to draw parallels to his betting mania. ''I discovered I had more in common with Eisenreich than just base hits,'' Rose writes. If it seems a hokey and rather insensitive stretch, a glance at the book's back flap confirms suspicions. Turns out the co-author, Rick Hill, is a Hollywood screenwriter who just happened to write the screenplay for ''The Longshot.''
Based on the life of Jim Eisenreich.
So what we have here is Rose, with the help of a shameless co-conspirator, trying to paint the picture of a clinically ill man who blames ADHD for his gambling and lying problems. Sounds like a hell of a scam when you need a convenient excuse: Hijack a plane, blame it on ADHD; embezzle millions, blame it on ADHD; miss a deadline, blame it on ADHD. They go so far as to quote an expert, Dr. David E. Comings, who says of Rose, ''Sometimes gamblers just forget the boundaries. It is very consistent with impulse disorders and ADHD for Pete to just not be able to distinguish between sports when it came time to place his bets. He just may not have been able to draw the line.''
But even Comings couldn't fully play along with Pete's latest game. ''On the other hand, he may have done it on purpose for the added thrill ... because he knew it was illegal,'' the doctor says. ''It's much like politicians and powerful dictators. If a person does an illegal act and gets away with it again and again, he discovers no one makes him accountable. He may have thought, 'I know about this rule, but no one will ever dare call me on it.'''
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